> the ones that made it out ok always have some sort of story about how one adult in their life took an interest and helped them get through it.
How much time does that take of the person who is helping?
Also, from article, “Most of the $30 billion spent on child welfare annually is funneled into foster care or adoption services”, “Roughly 23,000 kids across the country are churned out of the system every year”.
That averages $100000 per child per year, assuming 300000 kids in care and all $30G spent on them.
On any given day there are over 400,000 kids in foster care, and each year more than 600,000 kids will be in care for some amount of time. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/afc...
But when kids are adopted out of foster care, the majority will continue receiving some form of subsidy, including health insurance and often a monthly payment, so those kids are being covered by this spending as well.
> How much time does that take of the person who is helping?
It doesn't appear to be hours, although they help, but rather consistency over large periods of the child's life. In happier cases this is provided by parents and close family friends; teachers come and go and the family might move, but the parents provide emotional stability in the child's life. In less happy circumstances the issue is that some teachers and some foster parents might be great at what they do, but they only exist inside the child's life for a very short period of time.
> That averages $100000 per child per year, assuming 300000 kids in care and all $30G spent on them.
Yes, and you'll find nearly all of that money is spent on employees and organisations, mostly for locating abused (and "abused") children, with most services paid per-child (and of course ALL services have to catch a minimum amount of children or cease to exist).
In the best of countries (not the US) in 60% of foster placements something bad enough happens that the foster family requests their immediate removal (this is called a "break-down"). The US is much worse. Foster care does not offer stability, so every kid has to be found a new foster home on average every 8 months.
$800 per month per kid is very well paid for foster care. All the other money goes to government services. The child receives, at most, $250 per month (in cases where they care for themselves).
Studies point out that if you take outcomes, it would literally be better (children helped vs children harmed) if these services just outright did not exist. But I guess the problem would be much more visible.
How much time does that take of the person who is helping?
Also, from article, “Most of the $30 billion spent on child welfare annually is funneled into foster care or adoption services”, “Roughly 23,000 kids across the country are churned out of the system every year”.
That averages $100000 per child per year, assuming 300000 kids in care and all $30G spent on them.